Donald Trump is asking black voters, “What the hell do [they] have to lose” by giving him a chance. The Democratic opposition research firm American Bridge says the answer to that question is “everything.”
On Friday, it published the above earned-media ad, which highlights the lowlights of Trump’s campaign, from infelicitous language to outright incitement of violence, all directed at black voters. But what caught my eye is the image overlaying the penultimate frames of the ad.
The deployment is subtle enough that you might not notice it if you’re focusing on the moving pictures, but it’s an iconic photograph of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s entourage, pointing in the direction of James Earl Ray, King’s assassin, seconds after King fell to the ground at their feet. Here, they’ve been repurposed to draw attention to a Trump supporter punching black protesters, Trump himself fondly recalling the “old days” when protesters were severely injured or killed, and one man explicitly threatening murder.